My trip to Napa, Part 4: Montelena, Phelps, Darioush, lunch at Tra Vigne, Dinner at Bouchon and a nightcap

Day 2 consisted of more spitting and visits to Chateau Montelena, Joseph Phelps, and Darioush along with tasty meals at Tra Vigne and Bouchon. I especially recommend the latter if you are a fan of French Bistro far.

We started with a tour and sit down tasting at Montelena. They have a simply beautiful facility. I wish the lineup had been more impressive, but apart from the Estate Cab the rest of the wines were pretty easy to forget about.

• 2003 Chateau Montelena Riesling

  USA, California, North Coast, Potter Valley

  Slightly chalky nose, then Lemon Pledge. The palate is sweet and sugary without much acid.

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• 2001 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 83 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  An unwooded Chardonnay, that has to be worth something! Alas, this is somewhat underwhelming. Green apple with light yeastiness and maybe the faintest bit of toast. This has a ripe, oily mouthfeel. Tart, clipped finish.

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• 2001 Chateau Montelena Zinfandel Estate

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Very green notes on the nose, somewhat peppery. On the palate, this is simple and sweet with red berry, spicy yet cloying. Alas, the cloying continues onto the long finish. Not my style of Zinfandel.

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• 2000 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 80 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  This is the wine that was called the 'Calistoga Cuvee' in prior vintages. A shy nose of cassis and black currant jam is quickly overwhelmed by green bell pepper. This has reasonable structure, but I'm not a fan.

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• 2000 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 91 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  This was my favorite wine of the tasting. The spicy nose shows faint notes of cedar, somewhat reticent, some deeper notes of cassis are waking up with swirling. The palate is quite awake though, gorgeous and supple with layers of fruit and impeccable balance. This is still quite closed and clearly has a fair amount of structure, and especially on this finish this is obvious as some grippy tannins dominate. I really enjoyed this one.

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• 1998 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 90 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  This has a more mature nose than the 2000 showing black olives and tar, pure cassis, really blossoming out of the glass. The palate is black and brooding with a 'dark complexion,' getting more sweet with air. The depth here is OK but not fantastic. A medium finish starts to gain length and power with air. Even for a 1998, this is pretty tightly wound.

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Lunch at Tra Vigne featured some simply awesome pizzas served along with the very fun Arietta. Then we popped next door to the tasting bar for a quick peek at the Foley Charbono.

• 2001 Arietta Variation One 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  60% Merlot and 40% Syrah. Purchased off the wine list for $120. Wow, this has a knockout nose of violets and black fruit, sooo perfumed! This initially was somewhat sweet, but then the deeper, darker flavors took over. The palate is very structured but so juicy, powerful and nuanced. I really enjoyed this.

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• 2002 Robert Foley Charbono 86 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  I had a quick taste of this after lunch. A grapey nose of blackberry. On the palate this has juicy blueberry with raspy tannins and tart acidity. There is a Pride-like hint of brown sugar. Unique.

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From here we drove over to Joseph Phelps for their sit-down tasting. After enjoying an unbelievably great 22-vintage tasting of Insignia back in April, we were eager to visit the source. Alas, this tasting was the biggest disappointment of the weekend, as one mediocre wine after another dragged our palates down. To add to it, the tasting room representative mis-answered a number of questions and generally did a poor job of representing the wines and the institution. Too bad.

• 2002 Joseph Phelps Sauvignon Blanc 84 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  95% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Viognier. This has a nice, fresh nose, lemongrass, some ripe, tropical notes. The palate shows prickly acid with fresh mouthfeel. This is more tropical than grassy, lots of ripe melon. Pretty nice.

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• 1999 Joseph Phelps Chardonnay 75 Points

  USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros

  Deep gold color. Tropical, ripe, some butter, yeast. The palate shows spicy oak that totally overwhelms the almost overripe fruit and rotten mango flavors. This is pretty much everything that I dislike about prototypical Napa Chardonnay. No like.

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• 1998 Joseph Phelps Le Mistral 75 Points

  USA, California, Central Coast, Monterey County

  50% Grenache with the remainder of other Southern Rhone varietals, Zinfandel and even Petite Sirah. The nose is slightly brambly with some cherry. The palate tastes like cough syrup, clumsy with lots of alcohol. Fairly gross. How could they pour this?

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• 2001 Joseph Phelps Merlot

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Was this an off bottle? It was sweet, almost sickly sweet, sort of a pale shadow of a Pride Merlot with all of the sweetness but none of the intrigue or complexity. The palate has some herbal elements and then finishes like cherry cough syrup. I can't give this a score, undrinkable.

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• 2001 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 84 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Deep color. This shows green olive, black fruit and some heat. The palate is spicy with nice structure and an interesting vegetal edge. Then this finishes out somewhat cumbersome, too sweet with raspy tannins. Perhaps the 2001 Merlot tasted prior dragged my palate down.

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• 2000 Joseph Phelps Insignia 88 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  The nose shows roasted plum, cassis, caramel and some black olive. The palate shows dark, sultry fruit, spicy, yet somewhat monolithic and simple for now. The 2000 is one of the few Insignia that is not at the same level as the others.

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After the Phelps tasting we hoped that things would improve. Darioush was at least very consistent, albeit consistently over-wooded. They really need to ease back. I will say that they had a packed tasting room that reminded me more of a fraternity party, and people seemed to be having a great time. More power and juice to them, they can have my mine.

• 2003 Darioush Viognier

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  In the past I had greatly enjoyed the 2001 Viognier, so I was eager to try the 2003 edition. Alas, the nose showed peach and kerosene with ample notes of the 14.8% alcohol. The palate was very sweet, too sweet, like peach nectar. Not rated.

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• 2003 Darioush Chardonnay

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Wow, this has a LOT of wood, ouch. The wine is cloudy, spicy, everything I hate about Napa Chardonnay.

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• 2001 Darioush Merlot 80 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Hot, astringent, lots of harsh wood tannins. Peeking out from beneath this is actually some nice fruit, trapped in a spicy, toasty prison of oak residue.

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• 2001 Darioush Shiraz 87 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  The nose shows tar, leather, jammy black fruit. Like the other wines, this has a lot of wood to burn, but this might work out over time, as it has structure and fruit in spades. I enjoyed this wine a LOT more a few months ago with time to aerate, integrate and enjoy with food. The wood treatment is too heavy here, but this is good wine.

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• 2001 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon 84 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Spicy cedar, cassis. This has nice fruit, but it is SOOO heavily oaked.

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We went home, regrouped, cleaned up and then headed out for dinner at Bouchon, a french Bistro. Ah, what better than steak frites to get back on track with two wines that were performing well. Much better!

• 1994 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Wow, this was lovely! A nose of tobacco and barnyard, very black with dust, mineral and roasted earth. Classic claret! The palate shows such stunning silk, roasted fruit, and mineral. This still has plenty of structure on the back end and nice acid, finishing with a long mouthful of tobacco. This wine was at its best right when we popped and poured, and it provided glorious drinking for an hour before starting to shut down a bit. This is really lovely claret.

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• 1999 Vérité La Muse 95 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  My bottle. While the Pichon was singing out of the gates, this bottle got off to a slow start. Cherry liquer with some earth and horsiness. However, with an hour of air and a nice rare steak, OMG, this just exploded. This is my third bottle, and each time it leaves me shaking my head at just what unreal juice it is.

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When we got home, we had a few last treats in store. We had decanted the Beau before we left for dinner. Wow!

• 1989 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape 96 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dried herbs, sweet cherry, saddle leather, such a nose! This has a remarkably intense attack, just exploding in your mouth with incredible structure. As we sipped, the glorious flavors of provencale herbs, pine resin, and roasted meat come out. This is still very young, and even with five hours of air this is a little painful with a dry, tannic, mouthcoating finish.

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• 2001 Château Lafite Rothschild 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  From 375ml. We popped and poured this baby, ouch! The nose is almost impenetrable with graphite, minerals and cocoa. With air this is gaining sweetness on the attack. Wow, this has such unreal structure, tart, tight fruit, cranberry, red fruit, dusty, silky tannins, crushingly powerful. This is probably far beyond my ability to evaluate. 91+

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• 2001 Inniskillin Vidal Sparkling Icewine

  Canada, Ontario, Niagara Peninsula, Niagara Peninsula VQA

  This is one of those wines that makes you ask why they made it. It certainly had me questioning why I put it in my mouth. Very odd.

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